An Integrated Circuit (IC) includes a storage element and control circuitry. The control circuitry is configured to select, responsively to a scan-enable control, between a functional-data input and a scan-data input to serve as an input to the storage element, to selectively disable toggling of an output of the storage element, responsively to a clock-enable control, by gating a clock signal provided to the storage element, and, while the clock-enable control indicates that the output of the storage element is to be disabled from toggling, to select the input of the storage element to be the scan-data input.

A chip testing apparatus and system suitable for performing testing on multiple chips in a chip cluster are provided. The chip testing apparatus includes a signal interface and a test design circuit. The signal interface transmits an input signal and multiple driving signals in parallel from a test equipment to each of the chips. The test design circuit receives multiple output signals from the chips through the signal interface and serially outputs a test data to the test equipment according to the output signals.

Testing clock division circuitry includes generating pseudo random test pattern bits for scan chain logic in programmable clock division logic circuitry and divided clock counter circuitry. A shift clock is used to shift the test pattern bits into the scan chain logic. A capture clock signal is used in the programmable clock division logic during a non-test mode of operation. The shift clock is used to provide output shift bits from the scan chain logic to a multi-input shift register (MISR). Once all the output shift bits for the test pattern bits are provided to the MISR, a final test signature from the MISR is compared to an expected test signature to determine whether the programmable clock division logic circuitry and divided clock counter circuitry are free of faults.

One exemplary embodiment describes an integrated circuit, comprising a multiplicity of scan flip-flops, a multiplicity of ring oscillator circuits, wherein each ring oscillator circuit comprises a chain of logic gates comprising a plurality of logic gates connected in succession, an input multiplexer for the chain, and a feedback line from an output connection of the last logic gate of the chain to a data input connection of the input multiplexer. Each ring oscillator circuit is assigned a scan flip-flop group that contains at least one of the multiplicity of scan flip-flops. The input multiplexer of the ring oscillator circuit is controlled depending on a control bit stored by the at least one scan flip-flop of the scan flip-flop group assigned to the ring oscillator circuit such that the input multiplexer outputs an output bit fed back via the feedback line to the first logic gate of the chain or that the input multiplexer outputs a input bit that is to be processed by the chain to the first logic gate of the chain. The ring oscillator circuits are assigned different scan flip-flop groups.

The present disclosure describes exemplary methods and systems that are applicable for hardware authentication, counterfeit detection, and in-field tamper detection in both printed circuit board and/or integrated circuit levels by utilizing random variations in boundary-scan path delay and/or current in the industry-standard JTAG-based design-for-test structure to generate unique device identifiers.

A semiconductor device of the embodiment includes a plurality of scan chains, a shift clock control circuit, and a shift clock generation circuit. The plurality of scan chains each include a plurality of scan flip-flops. The shift clock control circuit outputs, to each of the plurality of scan chains, a control signal that non-inverts or inverts a scan clock signal. The shift clock generation circuit is provided to each of the plurality of scan flip-flops and generates a non-inverted scan clock signal or an inverted scan clock signal based on the control signal, the non-inverted scan clock signal being obtained by non-inverting the scan clock signal, the inverted scan clock signal being obtained by inverting the scan clock signal.

The disclosure describes a novel method and apparatus for improving the operation of a TAP architecture in a device through the use of Command signal inputs to the TAP architecture. In response to a Command signal input, the TAP architecture can perform streamlined and uninterrupted Update, Capture and Shift operation cycles to a target circuit in the device or streamlined and uninterrupted capture and shift operation cycles to a target circuit in the device. The Command signals can be input to the TAP architecture via the devices dedicated TMS or TDI inputs or via a separate CMD input to the device.

A method includes mapping an aging measurement circuit (AMC) into the core fabric of an FPGA and operating the AMC for a select time period. During the select period of time, the AMC counts transition of a signal propagating through the AMC. Timing information based on the counted transitions is stored in a timing model in a memory. The timing information represents an aging characteristic of the core fabric at a time that the AMC is operated. An EDA toolchain uses the timing information in the timing model to generate a timing guard-band for the configurable IC die. The AMC is removed from the core fabric and another circuit device is mapped and fitted into the core fabric using the generated timing guard-band models. The circuit device is operated in the configurable IC die based on the timing guard-band models.

A method for real-time firmware configuration and a debugging apparatus are provided. When a demand for updating or debugging a target processor raises, in the method, a computer system generates a firmware debugging request that is attached with a firmware data with a specific debugging function. The computer system then loads the firmware data to a programmable logic unit of the debugging apparatus. After the real-time firmware configuration is completed, the computer system issues a debugging command to the programmable logic unit. The programmable logic unit obtains at least one debugging action after resolving the debugging command. The at least one debugging action is performed in the target processor when the target processor receives the at least one debugging action. A debugging result is returned after the at least one debugging action is completed.

A control system, that includes a primary controller and various auxiliary controllers, is configured to facilitate a built-in self-test (BIST) of a system-on-chip (SoC). The primary controller is configured to initiate a BIST sequence associated with the SoC. Based on the BIST sequence initiation, each auxiliary controller is configured to schedule execution of various self-test operations on various functional circuits, various memories, and various logic circuits of the SoC by various functional BIST controllers, various memory BIST controllers, and various logic BIST controllers of the SoC, respectively. Based on the execution of the self-test operations, each auxiliary controller further generates various status bits with each status bit indicating whether at least one functional circuit, at least one memory, or at least one logic circuit is faulty. Based on the status bits generated by each auxiliary controller, a fault diagnosis of the SoC is initiated.